The Calcutta Municipal Corporation will house block land and land reforms offices (BLLRO) from April to make the process of mutation of land on the fringes easier.
Residents of the wards from 101 to 144 — covering Jadavpur, Behala, Garden Reach, Joka and parts of Kasba, commonly referred to as added areas — will benefit from the move.
“From April 1, the no-objection certificates needed from the office of BLLRO will be available in civic offices,” mayor Firhad Hakim said on Tuesday during discussions on CMC budget in the civic house. Hakim presented the 2019-20 budget on Friday.
It’s not clear yet which of the CMC offices will house the BLLROs. Mutation-related work in the CMC area is handled by assessment department offices of the civic body spread across the city.
“Someone buying a plot in any of the added areas has to get the property mutated twice — by the local BLLRO and the civic body. The property owner will be spared harassment and time if the CMC houses BLLROs,” an official in the civic body said.
Mayor Hakim’s move will result in other benefits, too.
A building plan from an added area will be approved by the civic body only if it is accompanied by two certificates from the BLLRO concerned.
One of the certificates states that the plot has been registered with the land department in the name of the person who claims to be the owner of the property.
The other certifies that the property is baastu land, which means a building can be erected on it.
“The CMC, under a rule that came into effect in April 2016, does not approve any building plan without these certificates,” an engineer in the civic body said.
If the owner of a plot not recorded as baastu land with the land department wants to construct a building on it, he or she has to first apply to the BLLRO to change the description of the land.
Obtaining a mutation certificate from the BLLROs takes a lot of time, said an architect who has designed a number of housing estates in Kasba and Behala.
“BLLROs take months to issue a certificate stating that a plot is baastu land. In case of conversion of land, it takes more than a year,” the architect said.
The CMC engineer said the civic body’s building department used to approve about 500 building plans every year before the 2016 rule came into effect. The number has halved since.
“The BLLROs must be set up in those CMC offices that issue mutation certificates. Setting up a BLLRO in the civic headquarters would serve no purpose because people would still need to visit two places for mutation,” an official said.
Mutation certificates for properties in Kasba and Jadavpur are issued from a BLLRO near Ruby hospital, while those for Behala and Garden Reach from a BLLRO near Behala Chowrasta.
Master plan
The CMC will prepare a master plan for the city in coordination with the CMDA and the PWD to draw up “holistic development plans”, Hakim said on Tuesday.
“What we are doing today is piecemeal planning. Someone says we need a flyover here, and engineers are asked to build a flyover.... The same thing happens for sewerage or water supply projects,” he said.
“If we have a master plan, we can plan... thinking what would be situation 20 years from now.”
